Read "The Closed Book" by William le Queux online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Though utterly fagged out, I hailed a passing cab and drove back to the corner of Harpur Street, where, in the shadow, about half-way along the short thoroughfare, I discovered the young Italian keeping a watchful eye upon the house with the sign of the bear.
"No one has emerged, signore," he said to me in Italian. "I was here a few minutes after you spoke to me."